Release your hamstrings, improve your performance and save your knees

A surprising number of problems arise from tight hamstrings, and given the frequency of knee injuries among athletes and dancers, it’s obvious that the methods used to keep them free could be better. This article introduces a more effective way to release your hamstrings, improve performance, and prevent injury.

A look at your hamstrings

The hamstrings are the muscles that run from behind and below the knees to the back of the thighs to the “sit bones.” Soft tissue injuries, knee pain, torn menisci (the cartilage pads in the knees that cushion the bones), chondromalacia patellae (painful wearing away of the cartilage behind the kneecaps), and poor posture often stem from tight hamstrings. Tight hamstrings can prevent you from reaching full leg extension or bending over completely. If you can’t touch your toes or if you feel more comfortable slouching than sitting up straight, your hamstrings are probably tight.

There are actually three hamstring muscles on the back of each thigh, two on the inside and one on the outside. They do various things. In addition to bending the knees, they help control alternating forward and backward gait motions and stability against torsional forces on the knee when cornering or skidding. They also position the menisci in the knees via fibers (from the biceps femoris) that pass into the knee joint.

Tight hamstrings contribute to the backward lean by pulling the knees behind the vertical centerline of the body (i.e., locking the knees). The entire body swings forward, accentuating the curves of the spine. If the outer hamstrings are tighter than the inner hamstrings, the lower leg rotates outward. This twist in the knee joint contributes to knee pain, knee injuries, and clumsy movement. Finally, when standing, bent knees put stress on the muscles at the front of the thigh, the quadriceps, to keep the knees from bending. If you keep your knees bent all the time, the patella or patella, which is embedded in the tendon of the quadriceps muscles, continually rubs against the front surface of the knee joint and can become irritated.

As you can see, hamstring tightness has far-reaching effects on movement, balance, and joint health.

Why Stretching Doesn’t 100% Protect Against Hamstring Pulls and Soft Tissue Injuries

Knowing all this, athletes and dancers try to stretch the hamstrings. “Attempt” is the right word because stretching produces only limited and temporary effects, which is one of the reasons so many athletes (and dancers) suffer hamstring and knee injuries.

As anyone who has had someone stretch their hamstrings knows, forced stretching is also often a painful ordeal. Also, stretching your hamstrings disrupts their natural coordination with your quadriceps muscles, which is why your legs feel shaky after stretching your hamstrings.

Fortunately, there is a more effective way to control hamstring tightness than stretching. To understand how it works, you must first recognize that the hamstrings that need to be stretched generally maintain tension, that is, actively contract. In that case, the person is keeping them tense out of habit, unconsciously. Oddly enough, if you try to relax them, he’s likely to find that he can’t; then it can be assumed that the muscles are completely relaxed and need stretching. You may not be aware that these muscles are contracting “on automatic” due to postural habits stored in your central nervous system. Any attempt to stretch them simply reactivates the urge to contract them again to restore a sense of what is “familiar.” This is why the hamstrings (and other muscles) tighten up again so soon after stretching or massage. Better results are achieved by changing the person’s “set point”—their sense of what is “relaxed.”

what works best

Changing the set point requires more than stretching or massaging; it requires a learning process that affects the brain, which controls the muscular system. This learning process is known in some circles as “somatic education.” Somatic education systematically uses special patterns of coordination to improve awareness and control the tension of the muscular system. Significant results come relatively quickly, and when they do, the benefits are second nature and don’t require special attention in daily life.

The following coordination pattern, developed by Thomas Hanna, Ph.D., a pioneer in the field of somatic education, will show you. You may want to save this page so you can try it out on your own. Have someone read the instructions to you and follow the instructions.

To learn the coordination pattern:
Get the illustrated version: click here

1. Sit on the floor with one leg bent and dropped to the side. Its sole rests against the inside of your other leg, which is straight.
2. Raise your straight leg high enough to allow you to grab your foot with both hands; the tips of your fingers meet on your sole. Hold it tight and you’re ready to go.
3. Holding your foot firmly, push gently with your leg, so your arm and shoulder are stretched. Tilt your head forward. Gently work to the edge of your flexibility.
4. Now gradually relax your thrust, let your knee bend and take the slack by lifting your leg with your hands. It is a kind of “isometric movement” exercise.
5. Now, with your leg, push again, maintaining a bit of pull with your hands. Go back and forth within her comfort zone.

You will notice that with each repetition, you advance a little more. You are gaining sensation and control of muscle tension in your hamstrings. The thing to remember is to move slowly enough and hard enough to clearly feel the muscle action.

After about ten repetitions in slow motion, stand up and feel the difference between your two legs. To walk. You will notice that you feel looser and yet safe.

Now do the other leg.

You can do this coordinating pattern in numerous positions:

• session
• on your back
• From your side
• on your other side

Each position contributes to greater awareness and control.

Regardless of how long you’ve had tight hamstrings or how tight they are, you’ll feel an improvement every time you do it, until you’re naturally relaxed.

Releasing the hamstrings in this way can prevent soft tissue injury and preserve joint integrity. Your hamstrings will be stronger because, being relaxed, they won’t be partially fatigued all the time. You will be able to run or walk faster and your knees will be more stable. Brokers may find this benefit of particular interest.

how to get more

What you are doing is a special type of movement maneuver that is taught in a training method called Hanna Somatic Education® (Google the term). This kind of DIY functional exercise is a part of the method. Other more powerful techniques reduce chronic pain and loss of flexibility caused by aging, injury (including overuse injuries and surgery), and stress.

You’ll find illustrated instructions for some of the somatic exercises Dr. Hanna devised in his DIY book, Somatics: Reawakening the Mind’s Control of Movement, Flexibility, and Health (published by Perseus Books, sold on Amazon.com).